1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of printing exposed photographic film.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, photographic film which has been exposed is subjected to a so-called simultaneous printing process in which the photographic film is developed and printed at the same time. If a consumer orders extra printing, he looks for a frame number corresponding to the desired print while viewing his negative film and gives an order by specifying the frame number. However, if similar images are continuously recorded on the negative film, the consumer will find it difficult to look for the desired image corresponding to the frame number to be specified and may give a wrong order occasionally.
To cope with the above-described problem, it has heretofore been proposed to provide a photographic printing apparatus with a character printer so that a frame number corresponding to each image of negative film is printed on photographic paper (as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 128932/1981 and 128933/1981). In accordance with such a proposal, since a frame number is printed on the reverse surface of each sheet of photographic paper, it is possible to easily specify a desired frame number at the time of the order. Moreover, if the amount of exposure correction for printing is printed together with each corresponding frame number, it is also possible to produce an extra print the finish of which is substantially the same as the finish of the initial print produced by a simultaneous printing process. Such a frame number and the amount of exposure correction are hereinafter referred to simply as the frame information.
The above-described character printer is commonly of the dot-impact type and, particularly in the case of a high-speed character printer, the breakage of a latent image, hence, desensitization, may take place due to the striking pressure of a printing head in a character-printing section. If the character printer is of a type which does not apply any pressure to photographic paper, for example, an ink-jet type or a heat transfer type, the problem described above may be eliminated, but the printing speed is limited. In addition, the maintainability is inferior and a number of consumable goods such as ink ribbon, ink and the like are required, thus leading to an increase in cost.
For these reasons, it is considered that characters are printed on the reverse surface of photographic paper after the photographic paper has been processed. This is because, after processing, there is no risk that a change may occur in an image on the surface of the photographic paper, and also because, even if a character printer of the dot-impact type is employed, it is possible to avoid the problem of the breakage of a latent image. In this case, the frame information to be printed on photographic paper is generally read from a paper tape which stores the exposure conditions of the corresponding negative film, and the character printer is controlled on the basis of the frame information thus read.
In such a character printing process, however, a number of problems may be experienced, particularly in a case where printing is effected by utilizing control negative film irrespective of information stored on paper tape or where negative film and paper tape need to be fed back to conduct printing once more due to accidents such as fluctuations in synchronization or the jamming of the negative film.
In such a case, a discrepancy may occur between the sequence of frames stored on the paper tape and the sequence of image frames recorded on roll photographic paper. If frame information is printed on the reverse surface of the photographic paper in accordance with the sequence of frames initially stored on the paper tape, the frame information printed will not correspond to the original image.